Free Movement of Persons / Citizenship Past Year Questions from 2012 onwards (Essay and Problem)

No. Question Answer

1. 2012 ZB Q4
Discuss the extent to which the person in each of the following cases is protected
under EU law from attempts to deport them.
(a) Esmeralda is a Portuguese national who comes to the UK in order to take up
employment in a senior position with a newly created internet company, Yourlife,
aimed at providing older people with medical advice after they have undergone
surgery for heart attacks or cancer. She is refused entry on two counts:
(i) UK health policy is aimed at making official health advice as efficient as
possible and at minimizing the large amount of health advice available on
websites, some of which it considers to be detrimental to people’s health;
and
(ii) Esmeralda only has 100 euros in cash with her and this is not considered
sufficient by the border officials.
(b) Hans is a Dutch house painter working in London. He has been employed for
about ten hours a week by an agency which pays his wages, with deduction of
tax and national insurance contributions. It is discovered that the agency has
been employing some people in painting and decorating jobs, but in reality as
couriers for a thriving drug-smuggling trade it maintains, and that the painting and
decorating side was purely a cover for this. Hans is in danger of losing his job and
decides to get out while he can. He obtains a number of jobs as a painter and
handyman from people who formerly employed him through the agency. Hans’
wife has come casual cleaning jobs. They have a child of school age. Hans
applied to the authorities in the London Suburb where they live for income
support, housing and child benefits. His application is refused on the following
grounds:
(i) He does not have enough work to maintain himself and his family; and
(ii) He is under suspicion of having had some ‘connection’ with the drug-
smuggling activities of the agency.
2. 2012 ZB Q7
Lorna and Kevin are both US citizens who have lived and worked in Belgium for
seven years. They are employed as dancers with a leading ballet company in
Brussels. They have two children, aged five and six, who have Belgian nationality.
The ballet company has fallen upon hard times and both Lorna and Kevin lose their
jobs. They apply for unemployment benefit, child benefit and housing assistance to
the Belgian authorities. This is refused and they are told that they have to leave as
they no longer have enough income to maintain themselves and their children. Advise
Lorna and Kevin as to any rights to remain and claim benefits they and their children
have under EU law.

3. 2013 ZB Q2
Yasif is an Algerian national. He unlawfully entered in France in 2005 and applied for
political asylum. His application was eventually rejected in 2007. That year he met
Dominique, a French national.
The couple fell in love and married in 2008 and now have two children. For a few
years Yasif did various jobs. Dominique was employed by the University of Paris as
an IT coordinator until 2011 when she was made redundant. In 2012, Yasif applied for
a residence permit and residence document under European Union law as the
husband of a Union citizen. Yasif argues, in particular, that without a residence permit
he has been unable to work, at least not lawfully. The French authority refuses his
applications. It also alerts the Immigration authorities who, after considering Yasif’s
status, decide to order his expulsion from France. In the meantime, Dominique,
following her redundancy, applies for unemployment and children benefits which are
duly granted.
In 2013, Yasif decides to appeal against the decision to deport him. Yasif challenges
the decision on the grounds that:
(a) Articles 20 and 21 TFEU confer a right of residence upon a national of a non-
member State lawfully married to a citizen of the Union and the deportation order
would have the effect of depriving a EU citizen of the rights protected by those
 provisions;
(b) That Article 20 in conjunction with the provisions of Articles 21, 24 and 34 of the
Charter of Fundamental Rights, must be interpreted as meaning that the right of a
minor child who is a national of a Member State to reside in that State must entail
the grant of a work permit to a parent (who is a national of a non-member State)
upon whom the child is dependent.
The French Court decides to stay proceedings and refers these questions to the ECJ.
You are the Advocate General assigned to the case; write your opinion.

4. 2014 ZB Q4
John, a British national, came to Spain five years ago. He worked for a bank in Madrid
until six months ago when he was convicted and sentenced to twelve months in
prison for possessing an illegal firearm on bank premises. He is scheduled to be
released next month, taking account of his good behaviour. The Spanish authorities
have stated that they will seek his deportation to the United Kingdom immediately on
his release.
Carla, John's wife, is a Spanish national. She claims that John’s deportation will leave
her without any financial support and will endanger her marriage. In addition, she will
also have difficulties looking after their son Francisco, who has learning difficulties.
Advise John, Carla, and Francisco as to their rights under EU law.

5. 2014 ZB Q8
‘Recent judgments in the “post-Zambrano” phase clearly show that the Court is
revisiting its case law on the application of EU citizenship rights.’ Discuss.

6. 2015 ZB Q3
According to Advocate General Colomer ‘the concept of citizenship, which entails a
legal status for individuals, means that the Member States must pay particular
attention to individual legal situations. The fundamental rights play a vital role in the
performance of that task. As an integral part of the status of citizenship, the
 fundamental rights strengthen the legal position of the individual by introducing a
decisive aspect for the purposes of substantive justice in the case concerned. Holding
their fundamental rights as prerogatives of freedom, citizens of the Union afford their
claims greater legitimacy. Moreover, in some cases, where a fundamental right is not
at stake but a clear injustice has been committed, citizenship can offer protection’.
Do you agree? Should citizenship become a sort of a panacea for any injustice?

7. 2015 ZB Q6
In France, jobseekers who are in need of assistance may apply for the ‘basic benefits
provision’ in order, inter alia, to meet their subsistence needs. The benefits granted
thereunder are intended to enable recipients to lead a life in keeping with human
dignity and are intended to cover basic subsistence needs, accommodation and
heating needs. Ms Popescu and her infant son, both Romanian nationals, were
refused by a local job centre the basic benefits provision. Ms Popescu and her son
(who was born in France) have been living in France in the apartment of one of Ms
Popescu’s sisters, who provides them with food and lodging. Ms Popescu has no
professional qualifications and, up until now, has not pursued any professional
activity, either in France or in Romania.
Ms Popescu instructs you as a lawyer as to challenge the decision of the national
authority to deny her and her son the ‘basic provision’.

8. 2016 ZB Q4
John, a British national, moved to France with a view to settle there permanently. As a
former investment banker he had considerable holdings in shares in British
companies and also savings in a British bank, as well as private health insurance. He
had therefore no problem obtaining a residence permit from the French authorities. In
2015 he encountered considerable financial difficulties. The value of his shares
collapsed and the value of the pound in France deteriorated sharply. In January 2016
he therefore took on an occasional job as a waiter in the local restaurant, but given
the slump in the economy also in France his services were only infrequently called
 upon by the restaurant owner. He also has to seek hospital treatment. When he asks
to be treated in the local hospital he is asked to pay for his treatment. His private
health insurance refuses to cover the costs as he has fallen behind with his payments
for the insurance. However, he discovers that French nationals would receive the
hospital treatment free of charge. What is worse, when the French authorities hear
about his request to be treated in the hospital free of charge, they decide, without
further investigation into his financial situation, to revoke his residence permit on the
ground that he no longer fulfils the necessary conditions for residence in France.
Advise John as to his rights under EU law.

9. 2016 ZB Q6
‘The radically innovative character of the concept of European citizenship lies
in the fact that the Union belongs to, is composed of, citizens who by definition do not
share the same nationality. The Court of Justice case law simply spells out which
rights and duties emerge from such concept.’
Discuss.

10. 2017 ZB Q3
John Kerry is an Irish rugby player. At the end of the 2015/16 season he was
engaged by the Paris Rugby Club to take part in the final stage of the French Rugby
championship. Kerry played two matches only for Paris and the team managed to win
the league. After some complaints from another club, the French Rugby Association
decided to deduct five points from the score of the Paris Rugby Club and award to
another team the championship on the grounds that the Paris Rugby Club should not
have fielded Kerry. The Association argued that Mr Kerry’s move to the Paris Rugby
Club breached the rules concerning transfers of players. These rules prohibit clubs
from
fielding in the national championship players coming from other leagues if they have
been transferred after the second half of the season.
Mr Kerry asks your advice on whether rules of a sports federation which prohibit a
club from fielding a player in a competition if he has been engaged after a specified
 date are compatible with the principle of freedom of movement for workers.
Advise Mr Kerry.

11. 2017 ZB Q5
‘The Zambrano judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is of
fundamental importance in that it represents a permanent move beyond the confines
of market citizenship. In its place, ‘federal’ European Union citizenship cultivates the
human dimension of EU integration.’
Discuss.

12. 2018 ZB Q6
‘The status of citizen of the EU is intended to have positive connotations. Yet it is a
status that limits the control of national governments over national borders as well as
over national welfare systems.’

13. 2019 ZB Q3
Laura is an Italian student studying philosophy at a university in France. She assures
the French authorities that she has sufficient resources as well as sickness insurance.
In order to support herself, Laura does occasional work in a restaurant. In the course
of her studies she becomes very ill, and it turns out that for the last year or so she has
not paid her insurance contributions under the private hospital insurance policy she
had taken out. As a result, the French authorities refuse to offer her treatment. They
claim that, as an Italian citizen, she is not entitled to state-subsidised healthcare, and
advise her to return to Italy.
Advise Laura.

14. 2020 ZB Q1 
The CJEU held in the Grzelczyk case that, ‘Union citizenship is destined to be the
fundamental status of nationals of the Member States, enabling those who find
 themselves in the same situation to enjoy the same treatment in law irrespective of
their nationality, subject to such exceptions as are expressly provided for.’
Discuss the extent to which this prediction has been fulfilled.

15. 2020 ZB Q7 
Alberto trained as a chef in his home country Italy and worked in various Italian and
other European countries before settling in Paris, France, with his family. Throughout
his career, Alberto has always been an active member of different trades unions,
fighting for workers’ rights. Since his relocation to Paris, Alberto has become much
more active and has published a series of articles in the French and foreign press,
denouncing abuses towards staff in the hospitality industry across Europe. Three
years ago, he initiated a pan-European protest, whereby 5,000 cooks around Europe
went on strike for a day claiming better wages for temporary staff. Alberto has applied
for a position as executive chef at the Elysée Palace, to lead the kitchen feeding the
President of the Republic. He was not even interviewed, and Philippe, a less-qualified
French national, got the job. The feedback Alberto received from the panel was that,
as a foreigner, he was not eligible for this job. Moreover, given his profile, he would
qualify as a threat to the president. Alberto wonders if EU law can help him challenge
the decision of the panel.
Advise Alberto.

16. 2021 ZB Q4 
Kaspar is an Estonian national, residing in Romania since birth. Kaspar has never
entered into a formal employment contract with anyone, but has carried out odd jobs
from time to time and relied on family funds. In 2018, while attending an English
language course, he fell in love with the tutor, Helen, and married her in 2019. Helen
is an American national who entered the country on a tourist visa in 2016 and never
left. In 2020 Kaspar was arrested for drug possession, but was released shortly
afterwards. In 2021 he was again arrested for drug possession, and an expulsion
order was issued in his name. Helen has received an expulsion order as well, on the
grounds that, as a third country national she can only remain in the country if her
husband, an EU national, is eligible to stay there.
 Advise Kaspar and Helen whether EU law can be of assistance in their case.

17. 2021 ZB Q7 
Jamie is an Irish national with a doctorate in English from University College Dublin.
During his studies, he married his classmate, Zelda. After graduation, they moved to
her home country, Hungary. Jamie applied for a job as an English teacher in a high
school in Budapest, but he was rejected as, following the interview, it emerged that
his knowledge of Hungarian was only upper intermediate. Jamie has followed an
advanced course in Hungarian and has a certificate from University College Dublin.
Yet, according to Hungarian law, all teachers working in the national education need
to have an excellent level of Hungarian, which is assessed by the employer during an
interview.
Discuss whether EU free movement law can assist Jamie in this case.